THE HILARY HENINGER

Isn’t it funny how we take in information about our relationships and people as far as how we feel when we engage and interact with them and then completely ignore the same dynamic when it comes to our diet?

I stopped by the farmers market yesterday to pick up most of my food for the week. I tend to eat fairly well (I’m that annoying person who loves kale, beets, broccoli and grew up in a family that didn’t classify caesar salad as a “real” salad and I thought chicken wings were baked until I was 21…Yes, you read that right. Yes I am also quite intelligent but we’ll discuss that confusion/lesson another time).

Like many people, I strive for moderation and balance.

As part of my haul, I bought two garlic and cheese buns and a soft pretzel. How can you tell I came straight from the gym?

I should probably mention that I don’t really feel well when I eat bread. I’m not one of those obnoxious people who enjoys announcing to the table that I’m gluten free – because I am not – but also because I don’t actually have a known gluten intolerance (trendy or otherwise). I do however, know that my body has let me know that it doesn’t particularly enjoy dairy or certain bread products.

Don’t worry though I didn’t let that stop me yesterday…my body however, reminded me for the rest of the day that this was in fact its preference.

It’s hilarious to me that if this were a relationship I wonder if I would keep going back. Like Sending someone a text of ‘Hi’ or ‘Want to grab coffee?’ and the response was ‘No way in hell’ or ‘Please stop texting me’ if I would be like, “maybe I’ll try again later”….yet when we clearly receive feedback from our bodies, wether it’s bloat, discomfort, general sluggishness or explosive diarrhea – we sometimes hope that maybe those 37 historical data points were a one off?

I legitimately know a guy who continues to eat ice cream/dairy even though he is ‘on the clock’ as soon as he consumes it and famously almost killed me after inviting me to share an entire banana cream pie at the farmers market because we both have an insatiable appetite for baked goods and are apparently slow learners when it comes to listening and trusting our bodies when it clearly communicates a message (more like a Molotov cocktail in some instances). Yes that was a run on sentence. Yes – I digress. Back to the point…

So here goes – my body is asking me to pay attention. Specifically to this one area – so why ignore it? It’s strangely odd to say I have and yet authentically aligned to say that I can’t anymore. The message is clear.

Dear Hilary,

Please stop eating pretzels, cheese buns, and copious amounts of bread.

Sincerely, your GI Tract.